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David Graham, 41, of Holly Drive, Stanwix, was acquitted by a jury at Carlisle Crown Court yesterday.

But even though Mr Graham has been cleared of the charge, Judge Peter Hughes QC called for an investigation into his fitness to be a licensed cabbie.

Mr Graham denied raping his passenger. Instead he claimed it was the other man who was guilty of assault because he forced him to commit a sex act. Mr Graham told the court that he hadn’t reported it to police because he wanted to brush it off as a ‘prank’.

This reluctance to involve police when a serious incident had occurred was one of the concerns raised by Judge Hughes.

The other was that when the passenger began to threaten him, Mr Graham switched off communications to his office.

After the case it was confirmed that his taxi licence had already been suspended